BRASILIA: A Brazilian Senate report recommended Wednesday pursuing crimes against humanity and other charges against President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly bungling Brazil‘s response to Covid-19 and contributing to the country having the world’s second-highest pandemic pandemic death toll.
Sen. Renan Calheiros presented the proposal to a committee of colleagues that has spent six months investigating the Brazilian government’s management of the pandemic. The decision on whether to file most of the charges would be up to Brazil’s prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee and ally.
In a nearly 1,200-page report based on the committee’s work, Calheiros called for Bolsonaro’s indictment on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity. The report can be modified before the 11-member senatorial committee considers endorsing it; a vote is set for Oct. 26.
The committee “collected evidence that abundantly demonstrated that the federal government was silent and chose to act in a non-technical and reckless manner,” the report states.
Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and touted misinformation and unproven Covid-19 treatments while ignoring international health guidelines for curtailing the spread of the disease. He steadfastly rejected restricting activity during the worst of Brazil’s outbreak, claiming the poor would suffer worse hardship if the economy ground to a halt.
The panel investigated that Bolsonaro’s management of the pandemic caused many of Brazil’s more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths. He has repeatedly described the Senate investigation as a political instrument aimed at sabotaging him, denying any wrongdoing in his government’s handling of the pandemic.
“We know we are not to blame for anything. We know we did the right thing from the very first moment,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday from the northeastern state of Ceara.
Analysts say it’s unclear if Prosecutor-General Augusto Aras would charge Bolsonaro even if there are legal grounds to do so, and that the report was far more likely to hamper the president’s push for reelection a year from now than make him a defendant in a courtroom .
“The major impact of the investigation is political, because it generated tons of news that certainly will be used by campaign strategists next year,” said Thiago de Aragao, director of strategy at political consulting firm Arko Advice.
Calheiros, whom the committee designated to write the report, read a summary of the report to the Senate committee. In addition to Bolsonaro, the report recommends charges for current and former members of his administration, dozens of allies, the president’s three sons who are politicians and two companies.
The document has to be approved by the committee before going to the office of the prosecutor-general, who has the authority to carry the investigation forward and eventually pursue charges. In Brazil, members of congressional committees can investigate, but don’t have the power to indict.
Pierpaolo Bottini, a lawyer with the Brazilian Bar Association who has advised the committee members, told The Associated Press that other avenues for bringing charges are available to the Senate if the prosecutor-general doesn’t ask the Supreme Court for authorization to investigate the president . But those would run through the speaker of Congress’ Lower House, another Bolsonaro ally.
Regardless of whether the report leads to charges, it is expected to fuel criticism of the divisive president, whose approval ratings have slumped ahead of his 2022 reelection campaign. The investigation itself has provided a drumbeat of damaging for months.
During six months of investigation, senators obtained thousands of documents and heard testimony from over 60 people. Scandals came to light, such as Bolsonaro allegedly turning a blind eye to possible corruption in a deal to purchase coronavirus vaccines.
Prevent Senior, a Sao Paulo-based hospital chain, also faced allegations that it forced doctors to toe the line on prescribing unproven drugs touted by Bolsonaro. The company, whose executive director the Senate report recommends charging with four crimes, has denied wrongdoing.
By adopting and insisting on so-called early treatment drugs like the anti-malarial medication hydroxychloroquine as “practically the only government policy to fight the pandemic,” the report says, “Jair Bolsonaro strongly collaborated for Covid-19’s spread in Brazilian territory and , as such, showed himself to be the main person responsible for the errors committed by the federal government during the pandemic.”
Bolsonaro continues to argue that the hydroxychloroquine is effective in treating Covid-19, though broad, major studies have found it to be ineffective and potentially dangerous. On Wednesday, referring to criticism around his push for chloroquine, he portrayed his advocacy as a historical event.
“Back then, no one knew how to treat this disease and I had the courage, after listening to many people, especially doctors, to put forward a possible solution.”
More recently, the senators heard heart-rending tales from family members of Covid-19 victims.
On Monday, Giovanna Gomes Mendes da Silva, 19, spoke tearfully of her parents’ deaths and assuming custody of her 10-year-old sister. Her testimony so affected the sign language interpreter for the Senate’s broadcast channel that he struggled to contain his emotion and had to be replaced halfway through.
“We lost the people we loved the most,” da Silva told senators. “And I saw that I needed my sister, and that she needed me. I leaned on her, just like she leaned on me.”
An earlier draft of the Senate report had recommended the president be indicted for homicide and genocide, as well, though the two proposed charges were scrapped in the face of opposition from committee members and concern that bombastic claims could undermine the report’s credibility.
Still, the report concluded that the government “deliberately exposed the population to a concrete risk of mass infection,” influenced by a group of unofficial advisers who advocated for pursuing herd immunity long after many experts said that wasn’t a viable option.
Sen. Renan Calheiros presented the proposal to a committee of colleagues that has spent six months investigating the Brazilian government’s management of the pandemic. The decision on whether to file most of the charges would be up to Brazil’s prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee and ally.
In a nearly 1,200-page report based on the committee’s work, Calheiros called for Bolsonaro’s indictment on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity. The report can be modified before the 11-member senatorial committee considers endorsing it; a vote is set for Oct. 26.
The committee “collected evidence that abundantly demonstrated that the federal government was silent and chose to act in a non-technical and reckless manner,” the report states.
Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and touted misinformation and unproven Covid-19 treatments while ignoring international health guidelines for curtailing the spread of the disease. He steadfastly rejected restricting activity during the worst of Brazil’s outbreak, claiming the poor would suffer worse hardship if the economy ground to a halt.
The panel investigated that Bolsonaro’s management of the pandemic caused many of Brazil’s more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths. He has repeatedly described the Senate investigation as a political instrument aimed at sabotaging him, denying any wrongdoing in his government’s handling of the pandemic.
“We know we are not to blame for anything. We know we did the right thing from the very first moment,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday from the northeastern state of Ceara.
Analysts say it’s unclear if Prosecutor-General Augusto Aras would charge Bolsonaro even if there are legal grounds to do so, and that the report was far more likely to hamper the president’s push for reelection a year from now than make him a defendant in a courtroom .
“The major impact of the investigation is political, because it generated tons of news that certainly will be used by campaign strategists next year,” said Thiago de Aragao, director of strategy at political consulting firm Arko Advice.
Calheiros, whom the committee designated to write the report, read a summary of the report to the Senate committee. In addition to Bolsonaro, the report recommends charges for current and former members of his administration, dozens of allies, the president’s three sons who are politicians and two companies.
The document has to be approved by the committee before going to the office of the prosecutor-general, who has the authority to carry the investigation forward and eventually pursue charges. In Brazil, members of congressional committees can investigate, but don’t have the power to indict.
Pierpaolo Bottini, a lawyer with the Brazilian Bar Association who has advised the committee members, told The Associated Press that other avenues for bringing charges are available to the Senate if the prosecutor-general doesn’t ask the Supreme Court for authorization to investigate the president . But those would run through the speaker of Congress’ Lower House, another Bolsonaro ally.
Regardless of whether the report leads to charges, it is expected to fuel criticism of the divisive president, whose approval ratings have slumped ahead of his 2022 reelection campaign. The investigation itself has provided a drumbeat of damaging for months.
During six months of investigation, senators obtained thousands of documents and heard testimony from over 60 people. Scandals came to light, such as Bolsonaro allegedly turning a blind eye to possible corruption in a deal to purchase coronavirus vaccines.
Prevent Senior, a Sao Paulo-based hospital chain, also faced allegations that it forced doctors to toe the line on prescribing unproven drugs touted by Bolsonaro. The company, whose executive director the Senate report recommends charging with four crimes, has denied wrongdoing.
By adopting and insisting on so-called early treatment drugs like the anti-malarial medication hydroxychloroquine as “practically the only government policy to fight the pandemic,” the report says, “Jair Bolsonaro strongly collaborated for Covid-19’s spread in Brazilian territory and , as such, showed himself to be the main person responsible for the errors committed by the federal government during the pandemic.”
Bolsonaro continues to argue that the hydroxychloroquine is effective in treating Covid-19, though broad, major studies have found it to be ineffective and potentially dangerous. On Wednesday, referring to criticism around his push for chloroquine, he portrayed his advocacy as a historical event.
“Back then, no one knew how to treat this disease and I had the courage, after listening to many people, especially doctors, to put forward a possible solution.”
More recently, the senators heard heart-rending tales from family members of Covid-19 victims.
On Monday, Giovanna Gomes Mendes da Silva, 19, spoke tearfully of her parents’ deaths and assuming custody of her 10-year-old sister. Her testimony so affected the sign language interpreter for the Senate’s broadcast channel that he struggled to contain his emotion and had to be replaced halfway through.
“We lost the people we loved the most,” da Silva told senators. “And I saw that I needed my sister, and that she needed me. I leaned on her, just like she leaned on me.”
An earlier draft of the Senate report had recommended the president be indicted for homicide and genocide, as well, though the two proposed charges were scrapped in the face of opposition from committee members and concern that bombastic claims could undermine the report’s credibility.
Still, the report concluded that the government “deliberately exposed the population to a concrete risk of mass infection,” influenced by a group of unofficial advisers who advocated for pursuing herd immunity long after many experts said that wasn’t a viable option.
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